Sunday, June 30, 2013

Tuesday, June 25, 2013The death of Mr. Koizumi after internet trouble
The legal autopsy revealed that Mr. Koizumi had drunk a large amount of alcohol before his death. The police has not concluded whether he committed suicide or accidentally died.

Some writers in China claims that joining TPP is beneficial for China. However, there are lots of obstacles for China to join TPP.
On the other hand, Korea seems to have no intention to join TPP immediately.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

I bought a Windows PC machine in 1998 for the first time. Soon after, I bought several PC games. I found one of them was the best one - "Baldur's Gate".

It is a computer RPG originally created by Bioware with the system of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), a famous Tabletalk RPG. AD&D was one of most popular and sophisticated system for playing in a fantasy world. Even now, succeeding system (D&D 4th edition) is the best selling.

But AD&D was very complicated system. Moreover it had a quite large data. So nobody imagined that we would be able to play a computer game with the system of AD&D.

However, Baldur's Gate realized it.

The first product of Balder's gate equipped almost all elements of AD&D, but the level of the player characters is limited to level 7. It means no person in the game can cast the spells more than level 5. It is a little disappointing. Fortunately, sequential series equipped more higher levels.

When I played, I was impressed by detailed graphics and clear sound. Furthermore, Baldur's Gate had a structured story around the player character. Storytelling was not a tide in American Computer games in those days. I was quite surprised to be dragged into the world in this game.

The player character was told by her foster father to run out from her home town to avoid from a deeper intrigue. However, the foster father was killed by mysterious assassins. The player character came to another town to seek his old friends.

After several episodes and adventures, the secret of the birth of the player character was revealed. Finally, she must select whether she will succeed the Throne of Bhaar.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Ms. Liliane Bettencourt is one of the richest
persons in the world. She is the daughter of Louise Madeleine Berthe, the
founder of L’Oreal, one of the largest companies of cosmetics.

Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, former president of
France is suspected to be given illegal money from Ms. Bettencourt. It is
deemed to be occurred in 2007, when Mr. Sarkozy was fighting for the seat of
the president. The amount of contribution was up to 150,000 euro.

After that, some persons around Ms. Bettencourt
were inspected for the suspicion of tax evasion.

It is important that Ms. Bettencourt was
diagnosed as dementia in 2006. If she suffered from severe dementia, she was
not able to decide properly about contribution to Mr. Sarkozy. It is a different,
and more critical problem than the illegal process of contribution.

On 21st March, 2013, the
investigation begun about the suspicion that Mr. Sarkozy had abused Ms.
Bettencourt. Of course he was opposed to the allegation immediately.

Ms. Bettencourt was also evaluated by the
psychiatrists to assess her capacity to deal with her estate. Mr. Sarkozy found fault with the suitability of the examiners. However, Supreme Court in
France authorized the 5 doctors who examined Ms. Bettencourt.

I think it is not an easy task to decide whether
Ms. Bettencourt was able to assess the situation around her and make decisions
about her estate. This is based on a psychiatric examination. But to
investigate one’s mental state in past appropriately is quite difficult.
Moreover, it is not assumed that her family members told the examiner about her
behaviors correctly. I guess the examiners had a tough time.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

The author has experienced a banning of Google account all at sudden.
He did not know the reason for a while. At last he remembered that he took a photo of his 4 years old son naked.
He had no intention to abuse his son. One day, the little boy had a pain of his penis, and rejected wearing pants. Then the author took a photo of his son as a joke.
Unfortunately, he had set the function of instant uploading of Google plus available.
The photo of his son was uploaded into a server of Google. Although he never published his photos, Google identified the photo as child pornography.

Google is now endeavoring to extinct child porn. Google introduced a new algorithm to detect the images of child porn automatically.
In Japan it is now under discussion whether possessing child porn is a punishable act.

It is a little surprising that Google is investigating any photos of the unpublished area of individual folders in Google server. It seems that every uploaded file is not private ones for Google. On the other hand, if a server possessed by Google was used for illegal purposes, Google might be responsible for it. Therefore Google may always have to investigate the equipment, similar to BBSs.

Anyway, the goal of Google is to make the world searchable. Facebook has similar ambitions. Will it be possible to reveal all problematic files immediately if they so wish?
However, it is not so simple. The current trend is going to enclosing valuable information. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Line will not be friendly to each other.

At least, we should be prudent for using cloud technology. I have disabled the instant upload function of my Google plus.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Mr. Mitsuo Koizumi was a politician in Iwate prefecture.
One day, he was angered at the service he was offered in Iwate Central Hospital. He felt humiliated as he was called with a patient number than his own name. He was so angry that he immediately went home without paying the fee for medical services.

How about his behavior?
As a physician, I think it is a national trend not to call a name of a patient at a hall in a hospital, because some patients are annoyed to be informed their names to other patients. Does a politician want to be known as a patient to others? To be honest, I did not understand his anger.

However, he seemed not to be able to calm himself down. He wrote this trouble on his official blog.
It is not surprising that his entry was heavily criticized. Some people began to demand Mr. Koizumi to resign the post of assemblyman. At last, Mr. Koizumi officially apologized. He held a press conference, which was broadcasted all over Japan. His blog was closed.

A lot of people made a comment on the web about this. Some of them blamed Mr. Koizumi cruelly. Others blamed the excessive trend of criticism. It is bad taste that a Togetter page composed of Tweets wishing his death was created after his death.

Mr. Tatsuya Kurosaka, a consultant claimed in his blog that (suspected) suicide of Mr. Koizumi was caused by media scrum overrunning him. He was afraid that internet argument influenced the real world with an extremely bad way.

I am also a person who criticized the behavior of Mr. Koizumi. As far as reading his entry, his act was quite rude, I think, even now. I made my tweet about this. I did not want his death, neither wrote so. It was almost impossible Mr. Koizumi saw my tweet. Nonetheless, I feel unstable now.

I dare not to write my opinion about the mental state of Mr. Koizumi or his critics. Several politicians or other famous people committed suicide in Japan. To be fearful, suicide is not far from our daily life.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Mr. Snowden was an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the past. He revealed that the NSA had been collecting personal information for a long time. According to him, world famous companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple had also obeyed to the demand for cooperation to NSA. He claimed he did not describe any information which should not be clarified.

Whether or not his behavior corresponds to a spying, the USA government would not allow Mr. Snowden. However, deeming him as a political offender makes it difficult to fetch him to the USA. Mr. Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was arrested with sex crimes, not treason. Perhaps his defection will be successful.

Nonetheless, Mr. Snowden will hardly gain the peace of mind. To be against a nation is so dangerous.

A nation is sometimes violent. The Justice is altered due to the trend. A man who is against an absolute power is brave, but rarely awarded.

There is legislation about treason also in Japan. Article 77 of the Penal Code regulates that the core traitor would be put to death. However, there has been no judicial precedent of applying article 77 yet.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Of course, it is a joke of April Fool. But some media believed it was true.

It is a funny article. Newspapers have been digitized partially still now. The newspaper companies will get rid of paper-style publications in the future, rather than buying ornithopters.

Not only deliverers, but also a lot of jobs face of the crisis of extinction recently.

Google car is approaching to be realized. If succeeded, taxi or bus drivers will lose their jobs. Most traffic accidents are due to human error. Automated vehicles are far safer when appropriately programmed. I think few people will be willing to drive a car for business use in the future.

3D printers are also focused. The fact that a pattern to assemble a gun was uploaded to internet caused discussion the other day. Can anyone create firearms without special skills. Fortunately, the strength of synthetic resin is not enough to resist the pressure of firearms now. However if the problem of the material is solved, perhaps we can make any products at home. Then, almost all manufacturing industries will be perished.

Digital telecommunication enabled us to talk together at a long distance. We can work without visiting the office.

How about service industries?

Japan is one of the best countries at the level of service. Employees at a convenience store or McDonald's is quite polite. You will experience a comfortable stay at a resort hotel.

Nonetheless, Japanese people are not satisfied. Some social communication sites to evaluate services are popular in Japan. They are available for free. We prefer personal information to professional recommendation in some categories. Service providers are also forced to change.
Medical and caring service is hardly to be replaced by a machine because it is quite complicated. But some methods to detect the best way to treat a patient is developed, so called Evidence based medicine (EBM). EBM is not a way to digitize medical care. But, doctors who cannot use EBM properly will be refused soon.

What kind of occupation survives the modern era?

I think there are two answers.

One is human instinct; food and sex.

Though making food is automated, some people want to eat more delicious meals. To cook materials for others who have a special sense of taste is not so simple task. Pursuing new tastes is long lasting.

Sex industries are also eternal. It is said that the oldest job is a prostitute. Sex culture will be changed. Anyway needs for sexual instinct will be lasting.

The other is education.

The history of human evolution is the history of education. To train others is a great task. And the method of training has not been authorized yet. The individual difference of each human will be decreased in the future. So talented trainers will be valuable.

However, it does not mean that the current situation of education will last so long. Most universities will face a tough time, as I wrote. I do not know what kind of form is the best mentor in the future.

I was impressed by the article written by Mr. Deguchi.
At first, he admired the statement for describing about several concrete goals.

Indeed, the statement includes a lot of numbers which Japan should reach, like below;

About industry growing:10% increase of facility investments in 3 years20% reduction of persons who were unemployed during 6 months in 5 years73% of the employment rate of women in 202010 universities will be included in the top 100 of the best universities of the world in 10 yearsThe best of the world at innovation skill ranking in 10 yearsThe best of the world at disclosure of official data in 2015The 3rd of in developed countries at business surrounding in the World BankTokyo is the 3rd in the world at the power of the cities rankingOver 10% of rate at opening rate of business1.4m companies in the black in 2020

About building a market strategy, the statement refers to a healthy life expectancy, clean energy, infrastructure and local community.
Moreover, it also mentions trading, export, broadcasting, and investments.

It is brave and reliable commitment isn’t it?

However, Mr. Deguchi criticized the commit statement. What do you think about what he wrote?

He pointed out a critical problem of the statement. It is the lack of solution against the declining birthrate. He also suggested that the statement had a weakness about problems in older people.

He claimed that the biggest problem of Japan was the reduction of population. He found that the statement did not cover the problem almost at all.

His suggestion is quite simple. But I could not do the same thing at a glance of this statement.
We often criticize an opinion or statement of others easily. Pointing some mistakes out is not so difficult. On the other hand, detecting a crucial point of view which is not described is more important.

Of course, as a seller of insurance, Mr. Deguchi may be quite familiar with the issue of population. Nonetheless I am deeply moved by his keen insight.

Indeed, universities had a great advantage to citizens in the past, since professors could access vast academic information through libraries they equipped. Old books were so expensive that most citizens or students could not buy one. The authority of academics was deeply related to the monopoly of information.

However, the era has changed.

Knowing information has no value in modern era. Everyone can search information he wants to know via internet for free. Both Google and Facebook are trying to make the world accessible to all information. Information has been changed, from being possessed to being utilized properly.

Moreover, the goal of scholars is to seek the academic truth. After identifying it, the truth should be investigated and widened, not be enclosed.

I sometimes see an academic report of a PDF file which is protected not to copy a sentence in it. It is very bothering. I did want to quote a part of it into my own article. Who dislike his own findings to be quoted as a scholar?

Of course, the honor of the person who finds a truth first is to be protected. Plagiarism is to be blamed. And scholars should be given enough reward. Nonetheless, selling their information a little at a time is not noble behavior for a scholar. I think it is an act of seller of information merchandise.

Then, what is the identity of universities? It is another problem. Also in Japan the significance of the existence of universities is argued now. A past Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology rejected the applications for establishing new universities in Japan, as I wrote.

I guess the administration of universities will become difficult in future gradually. It is quite challenging.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

In this method, a surgeon stitches a piece of material to the surface of the tongue of the patients who suffers from binge eating. This patch causes pain when eating. So the patient can reduce the amount of each meal.

Obesity is a big problem all over the world, especially in developed countries. Taking too calories chronically may cause damage to various internal organs, finally lead to death. It is said that more than one third of the people in the USA is suffering from obesity (BMI>30). In Japan, severe obese patients are relatively rare. Nonetheless, slimming is a quite popular matter in Japanese society. Books about diet are often bestselling.

Treatment for obesity is categorized into 3 types.
One, the most usual method is living activity; diet and exercise. They are quite simple but hard to carry out efficiently. You know, no one can accomplish the goal of slimming as she planned.
Another way is medication. Slimming drugs sound good, isn’t it? However, some of them make troubles to you. Several adverse effects are reported. To begin with, sliming is a phenomenon against the nature. So, slimming drugs are more or less poisonous. The other day, some people took methamphetamine to reduce appetite to lose weight. Needless to say, it is a very dangerous challenge. Methamphetamine is restricted, because of its high dependency and psychotic effect.
The lethal weapon against the obesity is surgery. In Japan, partial gastrectomy is available in some hospitals. The smaller her stomach is, the lighter her weight, is it true? I do not know the true effect of this method.

Anyway, you should cautious to the fact that obesity is a disease of habit. If you do not change your behavior of eating after you succeed to reduce your body weight with some medical care, you would regain the obese body.
Therefore, I am doubtful about the effect of this tongue surgery.

It is more surprising that the slimness is strongly estimated in Venezuela.

Slimming culture is commonly seen all over the world. Also in Japan, being slim seems to be a condition to be loved by men. Recently, excessive desire to the sliminess is deemed to be problematic in some countries. I hear that Vogue, a famous fashion magazine, decided not to adopt too slim girl as a model.

It is also to be considered that some obese people have eating disorders (EDs). Patients with ED cannot control their appetite properly. Therefore the usual diet method is not effective for them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be beneficial. I participated in a research about it in the past.

Monday, June 17, 2013

The story about the financial crisis of Greece spread to Japan several years ago. I remember that Mr. Naoto Kan, the past prime minister referred to Greece to warn the economic status in Japan.

Greece has to be asking for help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF demands Greece to improve the fiscal balance sheet. Therefore Greek people are suffering from the austerity. Some people say this depression causes a lot of death.

Indeed, the suicide rate of Greece is rising, as I suspected past.
Nonetheless the absolute rate of suicide in Greece is much lower than in Japan.

This graph is made from the OECD data shown.
On the other hand, I noticed that the suicide rate in Greece was also higher in the 1960s.
In this era Greece had experienced a rapid economic growth, similar to Japan. The suicide rate was decreasing in Japan in the contrast. I do not know what happened in Greece.

Japan is mirroring to Greece as the fact that there are a lot of government officials and a large amount of national debt. Interestingly, Japan has world heritages as much as Greece. Japan has to be worried about Greece.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

No, it's not the Catan, but another event performed in the same building. It seemed to be related to some animation movies. It was so crowded.

By the way, I played 3 games today. Each battle was quite exciting.

The first battle was carried out by 3 players. I fought against the emcee! I heard that the other competitor was a past champion of Catan. Wow!
I had a tough time. The competitors made marvelous deals especially in negotiations. I was overwhelmed by them from beginning to end.

However, somehow, I won the game.
I do not know why I gained the victory. I hardly remember the content of this game. Nonetheless victory is no other than victory.

The second game began in this afternoon.
I had a critical mistake in this game at initial placement. I also set some roads in the wrong way. However, the game became a slugging match. Finally I lost the game. If I had taken a victory point card, I would have won.

This map is a specialized version with 3D modelling. For the first time I touched it. Quite beautiful but, to be honest, a little bothersome.

I did not play well in the third game. Dice rolls were also not advantageous for me. The winner was a female player. She said that she came from Kansai. In fact she was also a titleholder of the championship in Hokkaido.

The best 4 players proceeded to the final.

I watched the final to find it was a one sided game. The man holding a microphone in the picture above became the grand champion. He was introduced as a titleholder of several prizes.

Kamata is famous as a Jiaozi (Gyoza) maker. I ate Jiaozi at a Chinese restaurant named Konparu. Quite satisfied!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

According the BBC, the man who called the police claimed that a woman had breached the Sale of Goods Act, because she was not as attractive as she had claimed.

The woman was a prostitute whom he called to a hotel.

The reaction of the police is interesting. The officer sent the man a letter warning him about bothering the police.

This funny story has two focuses.

One, the man seems not to recognize that buying sex is a crime, or at least an outrageous act. If he had thought he was doing an illegal act, he would have not called the police. Actually, the police told the man that soliciting for sex is illegal. He was so lucky not to be arrested for the sex crime.

The other is the quality of goods. We often get an item not satisfying us. Sometimes sellers cheat buyers because of asymmetry of information. Therefore, the Sale of Goods Act has established to protect weak buyers. In Japan, the Product Liability Act was enforced in 1995.

However, subjective satisfaction is quite vague and immeasurable. Especially, aesthetic sense is various in each person. I think that, a claim for disability of a tool is valid, but subjective beauty is out of warranty. Even if prostitutes were legal, I cannot understand his action.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Mmm, it is a little one sided. I agree with this article partially. However, it is misleading. I will examine each factor the author mentions sequentially.

8: Original purpose

The author claims that IQ test cannot evaluate extremely high intelligence.
Actually, the method developed by Binet is to be used to examine children only. In Japan Tanaka-Binet method is frequently used, for children only.
I wonder why the author does not refer to Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). The WAIS is adaptable for any adult. It is useful to evaluate one's ability to some degree. In fact, extremely high IQ is not evaluated correctly.

7: Unfair

The author says that general knowledge should be excluded from the elements of intelligence.
I disagree with this opinion.
Whether pure intelligence exists without any knowledge is an unsolved problem. Various attitudes are accepted about this matter. My opinion is that it is not pragmatic to hypothesize the existence of pure intelligence. We should make a lot of decisions every day. Then no one is free from knowledge acquired past to make each decision. A person with little knowledge may have difficulty to live compared to another with much knowledge. Therefore I think pragmatic intelligence is inseparable from general knowledge. And we have to know the ability of living, not pure intelligence, of the client in a clinical setting.

By the way, the entering examination for Mensan in Japan does not include "Klein Bottle". Mensa International has also modulation of the examination to get rid of the influence of cultural background of the examinee, I heard.

6: Bragging rights

This article warns that IQ can be a cause of discrimination.
I feel that this article itself is too biased. The author label every child and their parents discriminate.
Similar discussion occurred in Japan. Nowadays most school reports do not mark the achievements of the children. However, is evaluation with the score always discrimination? Is getting rid of scoring truly friendly for children? I am quite doubtful.
In fact, there are children with low intelligence congenitally. To detect the children with these disabilities at an early stage and give them some special education must be beneficial for them.
Excessive equality is harmful.

5: Creativity

The author claims some persons with great creativity cannot be evaluated with IQ.
Of course, IQ cannot evaluate creativity. It is not the role of IQ. To begin with, who has a tool for evaluating creativity accurately? Although the conclusion I agree with, this section is out of focusing.

4 Speed Irrelevant

According to the author, IQ test takes account of the speed of thinking.
It is partially correct. Some of the tests do not evaluate the speed.
I think that speed is an important factor of intelligence. Moreover, speed of performance is essential for the people other than astronauts too, isn't it?

3 Einstein problem

The author suggests the problem with evaluating intelligence based on a few elements.
This opinion is contradictory to other sections. The author said including general knowledge to evaluate intelligence was unfair.
Some kinds of the examination may advantageous for particular people. It is unavoidable, since the test time is limited. We must choose an appropriate method for the purpose of collecting data to aid the examinee.

2 Difinition

The author claims that the definition of intelligence is vague.
I agree with it. Modern psychology has not completed to detect the absolute essence of intelligence yet.
But it is an excessive request now I think. Even if this problem is unsolved, trying to evaluate intelligence is not meaningless.

1 intellect alone

I could not understand the conclusion of this section.
Does the author think intelligence should be used correctly? If so, what is the correct usage of intelligence? Does the invention of atomic bomb result from misuse of intelligence? Does dynamite invented by Mr. Nobel? Who determines it?

Totally, the original article includes some misunderstandings and prejudice.
What I strongly want to say is that IQ is merely IQ. The IQ hardly represents a human. Mensans also say, "Mensa is similar to a club of tall men."

Ancient people wished to be held a ceremony after dying.
This is Nobunaga Oda's, Japanese most famous Samurai.

Nobunaga was well known as he fought against Buddhism. He burned Hieizan, the sanctuary of Tientai. Saicho, the founder of Tientai Buddhism was a rival of Kukai. Nobunaga also massacred the saints in Koyasan. Then why was he set up in Koyasan? There is a hypothesis that descendants of the saints in Koyasan moved the grave of Nobunaga from another place to this sanctuary. If so, Buddhists in Koyasan might be extremely tolerant.

This one is Hideyoshi Toyotomi's.
He was an apprentice of Nobunaga Oda. After the death of Nobunaga, he succeeded Nobunaga, to rule all over Japan.
Hideyoshi conquered Koyasan. He was also infamous as a merciless oppressor on Christians in his later years. I do not know why the grave of Hideyoshi is put in Koyasan.

Koyasan is open to various families.
This is a grave like a rocket! It is created by Shinmeiwa-Kogyo Co. to lament the sacrifice.

This grave is built by anti-termites association. Termite (white ant) is quite harmful for Japanese traditional buildings. Several corporations offer a service to eliminate termites. Is the builder mourning for termites after killing them? A little fanny.

The last grave I introduce is for 5 races. Five races include Japan, China, Korea, Mongolia, and Manchuria.

The five gravestones were placed equally.

Before the World War II, Japan established Manchuria in 1932. Japan in those days had an ambition to integrate Asian races. Evidently it was reckless. Manchuria was collapsed by Russian attack in 1945.

Now I cannot decide the people in those days was good or evil. At least, I would pray for the deceased in the WW II era, wherever they were born.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Koyasan is a sanctuary of Shingon Buddhism. Kukai, or Henjo-Kongo, was the founder of Shingon Buddhism. He visited China to study Buddhism in 804. Then he returned to Japan and entered Koyasan and established Kongobu-ji in 816.

Koyasan station is distant from Osaka in 3 hours by the train.

A cable car line is available to reach Koyasan station. The scape was beautiful and a little fearful.

It was a little cold due to the height although it was summer.
I stayed at Ichijo-in, a temple-inn in Koyasan. This kind of facility offers visitors a room and meals as an inn. In addition, visitors can participate in ascetic practices such as meditation. I attended to a morning recitation.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Today, I watched TV on which Mr. Osamu Hayashi, a popular teacher, appeared.
He told his pupils about the importance of learning.

Some of his words impressed me. For example, he said that there were three reasons why a person lost; lack of information, arrogance and bias. He has learned that every failure had a certain reason with the learning of the history.

"Every defeat has reasons, some victory has no reasons."

It is a famous epigram by Mr. Katsuya Nomura, past director of a professional baseball team in Japan. Everytime you lose a game, you should be responsible for the result. On the other hand, if you win a game, it can due to luck.

Actually, this word is not original of Mr. Nomura.Mr. Seizan Matsuura, a Daimyo in Edo era wrote this word in his book, Kendan (About the swords).

Recently, a book named "Shippai no Honshitsu (The Essence of Failure)" is best selling in Japan. This book analyzes the activity of the Japanese army in the World War II, to describe about the pattern of several failures. The authors concluded that overadaptation to the environment led to rigid action repeated.

A lot of people pointed out about this matter. I agree with the opinion that every failure has own reason.
In my opinion, the essence of failure is described below;

(1) Lack of goalTo begin a battle, definite the goal first. If you neglect it, you will not be able to success, even cannot know that you have failed.

(2) Lack of resourceOf course, adequate resources are essential. They include both money, time, human and information. If one of them is short, you should compensate for it with another resource.

(3) Lack of sharingBefore you start the game with a concrete goal and fertile resources, you have to confirm it for your allies. Especially, both the roles and interests each player is responsible for must be accepted by all players in advance.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Do you have a dream? Dream, I refer to so called night dream in the context.

All human have dreams. Although some people say that they have no dream, nobody has no dreams. The person who feels have no dreams simply forgot the dream he had.
The etiology of the dream is not clarified completely. Mr. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, believed that the dream was a pathway to reach unconscious. His followers also researched about the dream. Even now, there are lots of books about "Dream Fortune Teller".

In fact, the dream occurs from discharges of neurons in the human brain. Brain activity is influenced by the environment. This is the reason why we tend to have a nightmare when we are sick. Afternoon naps also cause strange dreams.

It is also said that the dream acts as a masturbation. According to this hypothesis, we have a dream about what we cannot gain in the real world. You should be cautious after having a dream of success.

Then, what should you understand after a bad dream, such as killing a neighbor? Is this unconscious desire of yours?
I do not think so.
Killing in a dream is only a symbol. You perhaps are serious about the relationship against the neighbor. It is not to be worried or evil thought.

And after all, it is the most rational thought now that the night dream has no meaning. To begin with, innumerable idea appears in the human brain in every second, most of which are meaningless. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder that occurs when the meaningless and fearful ideas become dominant. When fragments of the these meaningless ideas gather occasionally in asleep, you may recognize them as a dream. Therefore, the dream is a product of a chance.

More or less, you do not have to worry about the content of a dream. The real matter is in the real world.

Friday, June 7, 2013

In Japan, national health insurance is well established. Almost all Japanese can use health insurance without trouble to visit any hospital he wants to a low cost. However, the examination of health insurance for a new drug is rather strict. Therefore, it takes a long term to add a certain drug into health insurance application. Some drug companies tend to abandon adding a new application for an older drug, not expecting more interests.

So, what should the physicians want to use a certain drug for a patient who has no disease applicable to the drug?

It is very frequent that a false name of a disease is registered for the patient.

For example, I have experienced a case that a politician investigated the situation about public health in a village.
An official receipt data in the village showed that schizophrenia was the third most expensive disease of the village.

It is sure that schizophrenia is a difficult disease. But its prevalence rate is only 1%. Why is treating schizophrenia so expensive?

The answer is false name problem.Risperidone is one of antipsychotic drugs, used to treat schizophrenia. Its application is limited to schizophrenia in the national health insurance. But this drug has good effect for abnormal behavior in delirium, dementia, or bipolar disorders.
So physicians described their patients as schizophrenic and gave them Risperidone. This usage is quite appropriate, as reliable evidence shows its benefits. But in the health insurance context, it was disguising.

In Japan, false name of the disease is so common that official receipt data are no use for the analysis of public health.

It is more fearful that some scholars not familiar with the clinical situation analyze the data with wrong method. If so, the result obtained can be far from the real world. To avoid this mistake, the analyst should ask for help to a clinician in advance.

Every system is getting older. The more time passes, the more exception occurs. At a certain point the exception will overcome the system itself, when we have to scrap and rebuild the system. I think Japan has a lot of similar problems.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Recently, discussion about working is rising in Japan. Historically Japan has protective legislation for regular employment. It is not easy for an employer to dismiss an employee. The OECD advised Japan to relax the legislation of dismissal, to shrink the gap between regular and irregular employment in 2008. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party also referred to relaxation of the dismissal rule.

Some people oppose the opinion. They claim that relaxation of dismissal rule would not promote the mobility of labor. According to them, employers in Japan dismiss the employees freely without hesitation.

Is it true? Actually, I heard some cases of dismissal not based on the legislation. They could resort to the labor standard office, but they did not. I guess that a lot of employees may accept illegal dismissal for some reasons.
If illegal dismissal is frequently occurring in Japan, the reform of the labor law would not make any change against labor market. Illegal dismissal should be rare exception to discuss the matter.

Japan has many exceptions.
And, excessive exceptions destroy the rule.

It is the same about the matter of overtime work. Recently “Watami”, a popular franchise chain of bars, is blamed as a dirty company. After a suicide case of a woman worked at Watami, working environment at Watami is deemed as problematic. Mr. Miki Watanabe, the president of Watami, claimed that Watami was quite fair to employees, based on some statistic data, such as the mean work time.

I partially agree with Mr. Miki Watanabe. However, the true problem is not the mean work time. Overtime work without payment, so-called “service overtime”, is very frequent at some companies in Japan. These excessive works never appeared on the official statistics.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

China is considering joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), according to The Asahi Shinbun.

The TPP is an alignment among the participants to free the trading from any barriers. It is well known that free trading gives both countries total prosperity as an economic theory. Therefore, several countries including the USA and Japan were arguing about the establishment of the rules for free trading for some decades. It is a global tide.

However, the TPP could make some stakeholders extremely confused.
For example, the TPP prohibits any non-tariff barriers basically. So it is possible that a foreign company will override the Japanese national health insurance. Registered doctors or nurses in foreign countries may be able to work in Japan. Some people say that it those changes will destroy the health system in Japan.
Moreover, legislation about copyright is quite various each other country. If the rule of copyrights is integrated, lawyers in the USA are ease to file suits against foreign companies, as the USA is one of the copyright - richest country.
Of course, Japanese farmers are opposed to TPP. They are afraid of decreasing sales after the abolition of customs duty.

Presenting some dangerousness above, many politicians are opposing to the TPP in Japan. The amount of opposites had reached almost half of all representatives.

Mr. Yoshihiko Noda, a past Prime Minister declared to join the TPP in the last year. Mr. Shinzo Abe also succeeded the outline.

Above all, free trade makes us happy throughout the country, but some will suffer. Therefore, some guilds can never agree with the TPP.

On the other hand, the TPP has the other characteristics. Free trading between the participants means the exclusion of the countries not participating in the TPP.
China is not ready to join TPP for some reasons, such as delayed establishment of legislation about copyright. It is clear that the USA has an intention to shut out China from free trading to take the initiative in the world.

It may be bad news for the USA that China has started to join the TPP. However, it is also good, because joining the TPP means that China is involved in the global standard.

In any case, Japan has no option than joining the TPP. I think that Japan should declare about this matter as soon as possible to play the role to make the rule, not obey the rule.

Monday, June 3, 2013

This is one of Atelier series maid by Gust. The first product "Atelier Marie" was produced as a Play Station software in 1997. I have played a couple of this series.

One of the advantages of Atelier series is the system. The heroine is an alchemist. She is very weak as a fighter, but can make various magical items from the materials. She has to go out to seek the materials to create more stronger items. The products you created would help your adventure. The more distant from the home town you go to, the more rare and powerful materials you can find. However, the game is over when the deadline comes. You should perform both compounding and gathering to accomplish your own ending in the limited time. The balance is quite challenging.

The persons in Atelier series are all charming. The heroine is a teenaged girl with cute appearance and pleasant character. Several friends and foes appear in this series, all of which have their own appeal.

The voice actors work very well. Written English is easy to understand.
I think that reimported media may be good tools to learn English with a fun for beginners, as I wrote about Madoka-Magica.
I am enjoying playing now. I will complete this game in a month.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Today I watched Oblivion, a Sci-Fi movie. “Oblivion” is the same name as my favorite computer game as I wrote. So I was interested in the movie.

I love Sci-Fi, but seldom read one as a paperback. There are lots of Sci-Fi movies I like, such as the Star Wars series. I am fond to enjoy the special effects on a large screen in the cinema.

On the other hand, I have critical eyes on Sci-Fi movies. Many movies describing the future seem not to be realistic. Sci-Fi should not Fantasy. When an innovation technique is introduced, sense of value of people living in the area must be changed. I think most Sci-Fi movies have failed to describe the philosophy. For example, I do not appreciate “In Time” or “Looper”.

Compared to them, Oblivion was not bad.
Its stage is 22nd century of the earth. People have established the technique partially of immigration to other planets. Atomic power plants can transfer sea water into energy. Human cloning is also available. I think it is possible these techniques will be realized until AD 2200 in the real world. Several flying objects to kill the enemies automatically threats the hero of the story. This situation is mirroring the real war using the crewless sky fighters made in the USA.

For the beginning of the story, the hero and his partner were left on the earth almost collapsed by the attack of the enemy. They have to keep watching the atomic power plants and the environment of the earth, protecting from the enemy. First, I was quite doubtful for the setting. The mission given to the heroes was too difficult to complete. They sometimes ask the space base for some supplies essential for the battle. But the space base hardly communicates with the heroes, even if the failure of the heroes would be critical for whole humankind. I imagined the situation that only a few rookie doctors stay night at an emergency hospital.

Is the Headquarter a blockhead?
My doubt was cleared soon after the truth about the situation was revealed. For this matter is the core of the story, I refrain from describing about it in detail. The truth was surprising and amazing enough.

However, I hardly understood the intention of the Wirepuller after completion of the movie. The author could not explain the side of the true enemy adequately. It is a disadvantage of this movie.

Finally, I felt the last scene extremely sickening. I guess the heroine would be annoyed, far from a happy ending. I believe that everyone watched the movie would agree with me.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Kindle is an excellent device to read e-books made by Amazon, as I mentioned. Even if you do not have one, you can read all e-books you bought with an iPod or a Smartphone, for Amazon offers Kindle application for iOS and Android for free.

The Amazon Kindle store had launched in Japan the last year. And at the same time, Amazon started KDP. You can publish to sell your own documents with KDP quite easily.

This lecture was performed as a memorial of publishing a guidebook about KDP written by Mr. Masaki Ishitani et al. Mr. Ishitani is the administrator of “Mitaimon!”, a Japanese blog.

He himself was the lecturer yesterday. Moreover Ms. Kazuyo Katsuma, a famous financial analyst, was attending the lecture as the special guest. She already has published several e-books with KDP on her own. These series of e-books are only $1 respectively.

Some phrases in the lecture impressed me.

(1) The strongest enemy against KDP is conference.KDP has some advantages. One is the rapidness. We need not make arrangements to coordinate a publishing team. Soon after finishing writing the manuscript, the e-book will be ready to be sold. So, complicated discussion is not needed. Carry out!

(2) What determine whether the sales are successful are the readers.
Several factors are concerned with publication. The bookstores decide how many books they should buy to arrange them on the display stand. Advertisement is essential to inform the bookstores about your new book. The relationship between the publisher and the bookstores are also crucial. The situation around publication is more complicated in Japan. However, you have an equal opportunity as any other author to display KDP e-book on the screen on Amazon.com site. If your e-book accomplishes the top seller, Amazon will offer you the best place. Therefore, it is a merciless battle in the market.

(3) You can utilize Amazon for a quite cheap fee.
Some people are worried about the dependence on Amazon. They say that they would be starved if Amazon increase the fee for publication. But the lecturers laughed at this kind of opinions. According to them, Amazon offers convenient system and infrastructure. The fee to use it is extremely low, considering the cost Amazon invested in it. We can depend on Amazon for a while.

The lecture was quite interesting for me.
I have published one small textbook of psychiatry. And I am willing to perform the next move in near future.